Live conversations between two or more individuals may be direct conversations (i.e., in-person face-to-face conversations) conveyed via the individuals physical environment or indirect conversations conveyed via various forms of electronic communication technologies. In some situations, a live conversation between two individuals may transition from being a direct conversation to an indirect conversation or vice versa. For example, two individuals may start a conversation face to face and continue the conversation some time later via an indirect communication channel when they are no longer in the same physical environment. Likewise, two individuals may begin an indirect conversation via an indirect communication channel but later transition to a direct conversation when they encounter each other face to face.
Using conventional communication technologies, users may need to manually transition their live conversations from direct conversations to indirect conversations or vice versa. For example, when one participant of a conversation must leave the presents of the other participants of the conversation, the participants may need to agree upon and manually establish a form of indirect communication (e.g., agree upon and establish a telephone call) by which their conversation may continue. Likewise, when one participant of an indirect conversation reaches or encounters the other participants of the conversation, the participants may need to close their indirect form of communication (e.g., close a telephone call) before continuing their conversation face to face.
Such manual transitions between direct conversations and indirect conversations may be abrupt and distracting to the conversations' participants. Moreover, various differences between how conversations are perceived when conveyed via different communication channels may also be perceived as abrupt or distracting, especially when the different communication channels simultaneously convey the conversations. For example, most indirect forms of communication introduce a noticeable delay between when something is said by one participant of a conversation and when it is heard by the other parties of the conversation. If the participants of a conversation establish an indirect communication channel while still communicating directly, the delay introduced by the indirect communication channel may distract the participants from their direct communications or vice versa. The instant disclosure, therefore, identifies and addresses a need for systems and methods that enable live conversations to be automatically and/or smoothly transitioned between different communication channels, especially between direct and indirect communication channels.